A Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to systems and methods for processing price discount coupons issued by manufacturers and, more particularly, to a system and method for automatically identifying coupon shipment irregularities.
B. Description of the Prior Art
The issuance of price discount coupons by manufacturers in the United States and throughout the world continues to be a highly successful method for stimulating retail product sales. A typical manufacturer's discount coupon 15 (FIG. 1) issued by a specific manufacturer, for example, the XYZ Corporation, normally offers consumers the opportunity to buy a specific product of the manufacturer at a discount, for example, fifty cents less than the normal retail price for that product. Some discount coupons have a specified expiration date and others have no expiration date. The typical coupon 15 (FIG. 1) includes a manufacturer's identification code "12121" that identifies the manufacturer as the XYZ Corporation and an offer or promotion code "343434" that identifies a particular offer or promotion of the manufacturer. To facilitate coupon redemption, the manufacturer's identification code and the offer or promotion code are printed on many coupons in "OCR" characters that can be optically scanned and interpreted by an optical character recognition system. Alternatively, the manufacturer's code and the offer or promotion code can be printed on the coupon using conventional bar codes that can be optically scanned and interpreted using a bar code reader.
During the year 1985, more than 170 billion discount coupons were issued in the United States by manufacturers; and redemptions of those coupons approached 7 billion coupons. Since the face value and handling allowance for each coupon averaged approximately forty cents (U.S.) per coupon, coupon redemptions for 1985 amounted to almost 2.8 billion dollars (U.S.).
Discount coupons issued by manufacturers have value and are sometimes referred to as "pseudomoney". Predictably, some fraction of the coupon redemptions from retail stores are improper. Although the extent of coupon misredemption is not clearly ascertainable, the consensus in the industry is that it amounts to at least fifteen percent of the coupons redeemed. Assuming such a level of misredemption, losses in 1985 on an industry-wide basis due to coupon misredemption are estimated to be approximately 420 million dollars.
The reasons behind coupon misredemption range from the attempts of small retail stores to redeem a few extra coupons for which no retail purchases were made to large scale criminal activities. Recently, manufacturers as a whole have become more aggressive in handling "suspicious" coupon shipments as is evidenced by a higher level of coupon redemption payment denials. The denial of a coupon redemption payment, however, is a highly sensitive event because of the on-going trade relations between manufacturers and their customers, the retailers.
Systems and methods for determining instances of coupon misredemption have evolved and have been refined over the years. Today, for example, there are refined methods for authenticating the identity of retail stores and for interpreting the volumetrics of coupon redemption by retail stores, for example, by the closer monitoring and correlation of coupon redemption and retail product stocking levels. Such refinements have increased the level of confidence in the sensitive coupon misredemption payment decision.
However, by and large, the visual appearance of a shipment of coupons from a retail store and the judgment of coupon redemption processors still provide the major method of detecting instances of coupon misredemption. A typical prior art system 20 (FIG. 2) at a coupon redemption center for handling the redemption of coupons and for determining instances of coupon misredemption includes multiple stages. Initially, at an Incoming Coupon Shipment stage 22, normal warehousing functions are performed, such as the incoming inspection of coupon shipments from retail stores, the counting of the number of boxes of coupons in each shipment, the weighing of each shipment and the assignment of a job number or inventory control number to each shipment. Preferably, the coupons in the shipments are organized or grouped such that all of the coupons in the shipment for each particular manufacturer are grouped together. This enables all of the coupons shipped from a retail store and issued by, for example, the XYZ Corporation to be processed as a single shipment at a coupon redemption center. This function may be performed at the retail store prior to shipment or at a retailers coupon clearing house or at a manufacturer's coupon redemption center.
The next stage in a typical prior art system 20 includes a Transaction Preparation And Review stage 24 in which the authenticity of the submitting retail store is verified and the coupon shipment is organized for processing. In addition, the submitting retail store's name and address are checked against files of known coupon misredeemers; and visual checks of the coupons in the shipment are made to detect physical irregularities, such as coupons in mint condition or coupons that have been gang cut or coupons that have been treated, for example by washing or staining or intentional wrinkling, to impart the appearance of prior handling or age.
A coupon redemption payment decision normally is made at this stage 24. If the retail store's identity is not authentic or if the retailer has a history of misredemption or if there are substantial physical irregularities associated with a coupon shipment, payment for the shipment of coupons will be denied or a decision as to payment will be referred to the manufacturer. In some cases, particularly where there are substantial irregularities associated with a coupon shipment, a suspicious coupon shipment will be set aside for a separate special investigation. For example, the number of coupons in the suspicious coupon shipment from a specific retail store may be compared to the number of coupons in previously submitted coupon shipments from the same retail store in order to determine whether or not gross volumetric abnormalities are present. Also, if the coupons in a suspicious coupon shipment contain serially assigned coupon sequence numbers, those sequence numbers may be reviewed for irregular redemption patterns. Furthermore, the geographic distribution area of a specific coupon offer associated with one or more coupons in a suspicious coupon shipment may be compared with the geographic area of the submitting retail store to determine whether or not geographic abnormalities associated with the coupon shipment are present. Also, if the information is available, the retail product stocking levels of a retailer who has submitted a suspicious coupon shipment may be compared with the specific offer or offers in the coupon shipment to determine whether or not there is a correspondence between those product stocking levels and the coupons in the coupon shipment. This information may be helpful in making the coupon shipment payment, denial or referral decision
Alternately, if the retail store's identity is authentic and if the retailer has no history of misredemption and if the coupons in the shipment do not exhibit substantial physical irregularities, the shipment progresses to a Paper Handling And Data Collection stage 26.
The operations performed at the Paper Handling And Data Collection stage 26 of a typical prior art coupon redemption system 20 depend upon the type and extent of services offered by the coupon redemption center to a particular manufacturer. For example, the functions at this stage 26 may include the individual entry into a computer of every coupon associated with a particular shipment of a specific manufacturer's coupons from a retail store. The data entered into the computer for each coupon typically would include the coupon value (for example, fifty cents in FIG. 1), the manufacturer's code (for example, "12121") and the offer or promotion code (for example, "343434"). If desired by a manufacturer, other data associated with the coupon of the submitting retail store (for example, the geographic location of the submitting retail store) may also be entered into the computer. The coupon information typically would be entered into the computer by standard keyboard entry or by an optical or laser scanner capable of reading either conventional bar codes or "OCR" strings, such as the manufacturer's code and the offer code, printed on a coupon. The coupons may also be sorted into various subgroups at this stage 26 corresponding to, for example, price and particular offers or promotions. The coupons normally are counted and totals for individual retail stores are normally entered into a computer. Samples from the coupon shipments may also be retained for shipment to the manufacturer.
All of the above functions at this stage 26 have the general objective of fulfilling the financial obligations relating to the submission of coupons by retail stores for redemption as generally indicated by the Financial Services stage 28 of the system 20. In addition, as generally indicated by the Marketing Statistical Services stage 30, statistical information relating to the coupons submitted by retail stores may be simultaneously collected by the system 20 for use in providing marketing information to manufacturers.
The above typical prior art coupon redemption system 20 certainly is adequate for certain manufacturers' purposes. However, there has been a heretofore unfulfilled need in the industry for a more sensitive and precise coupon redemption system capable of rapidly and accurately identifying instances of probable coupon misredemption, particularly when misredemption is not apparent from the physical appearance of the coupons being redeemed.